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Saturday, January 8, 2011

As you may have heard, today was week 9 day 3 of the Couch to 5K program. That's it. The end. I finished! I never would have believed 3 months ago when I started that I would ever be able to actually pull it off. I'm not quite up to the 5K distance yet, but I'm going to work on my endurance and not worry about my distance for now. For today, I am just going to bask in the glow of Graduation.

I know I mentioned that I pray while running. While this is true, I don't necessarily pray the whole time I'm running. Today was a very random thought day, so I decided it would be fun to share.

I started off with a prayer for endurance. It was short. God is smart. He's run with me before, so He knows what I need.
Then I was stopped and asked directions, so I gave them, only to realize I yelled at the people because I had ear buds in, something that my son does that annoys me... Moving on.
I started thinking about what people must think of me as they drive by. After all, it was cold, windy, snowing, and I'm not a small girl. (No, I'm not gonna tell you my weight...rude!)
That brought me to the things people (read : boys) used to say about me in my teen years. You know, back when I weighed 135 lbs. To all of them (you?), I'd like to say this: "I've seen your current facebook pictures. I at least have the excuse of giving birth four times. And you?"
I'd like to send a special shout out to the kid who frequently sexually harassed me at the back table in Earth Science in 9th grade. He married a girl we went to school with. He's quite a catch, I'm sure. *insert eye rolling here*
It was at this point that I turned the corner and headed downhill. I was thinking about how good my pace felt, my breathing wasn't labored, I was feeling good. Then a tumbleweed passed me. It's a good thing the wind was blowing 20 miles an hour or I would have been really insulted. You know, if there was no wind and it sauntered past me, sending a look over its stem...Show-off tumbleweeds really tick me off.
I don't recall any specific thoughts in the next stretch, just joy. That was nice.
I turned the corner and ran past a bush with a couple of dozen birds in it. As I ran by, they flew in circles and then away. I'm not a fan of flocks of birds, but I was extremely relieved they didn't all fall out of the sky, dead.
As I started up the hill past the school (into the wind, no less), the fluffy snow turned into nasty little balls of sleet. I considered that maybe God was paying me back for all the nasty thoughts toward the high school boys, but then decided he probably didn't like what they had done to my self-esteem either, and chalked it up to Montana winter weather.
Around the next corner, uphill, into the wind, again. This is where I always get happy because I can see my street and I know I'm almost done. I don't even care that it's uphill into the wind! Then I get to run one block on flat ground, and up another hill into the wind. This hill does make me hate running uphill into the wind. It's a good thing it's only half a block from there.
And then the euphoria of the descending tone in my ear. I walked around the block to my house, stretched, showered, and here I am. A graduate.

I'm going to take a few days off due to the forecasted frigid temperatures, but will be back at it soon with the start of 10K training.